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As we all know, the tourism industry in Manitoba has been experiencing a variety of challenges over the past few years, which has had a direct effect on the sustainability of many businesses and in some cases caused them to fail. Some of the reasons can be attributed to new US border requirements, a high Canadian dollar, high fuel prices and a reduction of US tourists because of their economy.
When the economy is good and customers are abundant some of the issues that you face as a business manager/owner are the same as when revenues are suffering. Having good human resource knowledge and skills are critical to business success at any time. Knowing how to hire the right staff, provide them with training, pay them competitively and motivate them is always key to operating a successful business.
When customers stop coming to your business, for any reason; that is when you need to have good marketing and sales skills. You need to know how to attract new customers. Once you get them, you need to know how to keep them coming back by offering a quality product and providing exceptional customer service.
Many of us in the tourism industry have started at entry level positions and been promoted to supervisory/management positions without any formal training. We have learned on the job and gained a really good understanding of the day-to-day operations of the business, but never really learned business skills that would greatly increase our chances of being successful in these positions.
Now, more than ever, businesses in the tourism industry need to stay competitive. Learning how to market your business, sell your business to “full capacity” and gain a greater understanding of taxation and liability issues that face the tourism industry will give you a far greater chance of being successful in any economy.
MTEC is currently expanding on the training that we offer by adding courses that will increase your business skills and knowledge. This is a logical step for us; to assist businesses in the tourism industry remain sustainable, we will be customizing our new business training to meet the specific needs of all of all of the sectors that we serve and make sure that the content is current and relevant.
For more information on our new business courses, please call Shannon Fontaine, CEO MTEC 975-7437.
Business training calendar can be found here.
Share Your Opinions and Expertise on CTHRC’s New Workplace Matters Panel
The general economic malaise that began in late 2008 has significantly affected global travel and spending patterns. This has made 2009 a particularly difficult year for tourism operators. Yet opportunities still exist for employers who understand and meet the changing expectations of their staff and customers. If anything, being able to compete effectively becomes even more important in a tough economic environment. To do so requires a good understanding of the best human resource practices and access to the latest information regarding the tourism labour force.
As part of its ongoing efforts to help increase knowledge in this area, the CTHRC has developed an online forum to gather and share information related to human resource practices in the tourism sector in Canada. This online panel, Workplace Matters, is a new project being spearheaded by the CTHRC with support from MTEC. The panel will be managed by Ipsos, a company with proven experience in building and maintaining online panels. As a third party, Ipsos guarantees the privacy and confidentiality of those taking part. All responses are anonymous; CTHRC receives only aggregated data.
Your opinion is very important and we want to hear about your experiences related to issues and challenges impacting your business.
To do this, Ipsos will contact you about once a month with brief surveys on various business practices and human resource issues. There is a limited amount of space available on the panel. Click here to complete our short membership survey today!
It’s Easy.
It’s Fun.
It Helps Businesses Like Yours.
You Can Also Win Great Prizes!
In appreciation for your time and support, your name will be entered to win:
- $1,000 for becoming a panelist
- $1,000 in a quarterly draw of all active panelists
- Plus, there’s a draw to win $250 for every survey you complete - the more surveys you complete, the more entries you’ll earn into our draws!
You will also receive newsletters with a sample of our research results and useful workplace insights to help your business.
Our Commitment to You
Ipsos is a member of the Marketing Research Intelligence Association which has a code of standards and ethics for survey research. To learn how Ipsos uses Personal Information collected about you when you participate in one of the surveys, review the Privacy Policy.
- All information provided by the Workplace Matters Panel members will be kept strictly confidential and used only for legitimate research purposes.
- Your email address will not be used by Ipsos for any purposes other than to invite you to conduct online surveys and send you periodic communications with survey results where possible.
- You can "opt out" at any time.
Enrolment is limited, so please click here to become a panelist.
We look forward to your future participation!
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Has the Economic Downturn Affected Your Business? Tell us How?
The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council and the Conference Board of Canada are conducting a series of focus groups across the country in order to understand how the economic downturn has affected the tourism sector. We invite you to join us for a discussion to share your ideas and experiences. We would like to hear more about the effects of the economic downturn on your tourism business, particularly with respect to your labour needs. We will discuss the current situation and your expectations for the future. We will be in Winnipeg on December 3rd, from 10:00 am until Noon at the Marlborough Hotel, 331 Smith Street. The CTHRC will reimburse all reasonable costs to attend the meeting. If you have any questions about this meeting and/or are interested in attending, please contact: Donna McLeod at The Conference Board of Canada, Email - mcleod@conferenceboard.ca or call (613) 526-3090 x366.
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QNET
“People join companies but they leave managers”.
Employees who feel committed to an organization and want to go that extra mile, often say they love their boss. Capable managers have a knack for meeting the needs of their employees.
Explore the needs of employees when QNET presents Capable Managers: What They Do Differently and Why It Matters featuring Dr. Linda Duxbury on Thursday, November 19th.Details here.
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Thank You!
MTEC would like to extend a big THANK YOU to the Alliance of Manitoba Sector Councils (AMSC) for all of their hard work in organizing activities for Manitoba’s Career Week, November 2nd to 7th. AMSC, located at 1000 Waverley Street, hosted Take Your Kids to Work Day, A Career Awareness Information Evening, and the Opening Doors Parent Expo. At all of these events, MTEC was given the opportunity to talk about careers in the tourism industry to kids and their parents, new comers to Manitoba and career changers.
To watch a video from the event, please click here.
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Parks Canada Awards First Business Licence in Wapusk National Park
In May 2009, Parks Canada solicited proposals for a seasonal polar bear viewing camp at Cape Churchill in Wapusk National Park. Invitations to submit a proposal were sent to all lodge and tourist camp operators currently holding a provincial Resource Based Tourism Licence to operate in the vicinity of Wapusk National Park of Canada and in the Cape Churchill and Cape Tatnam Wildlife Management Areas.
The request for proposals was developed by the Wapusk Management Board, which placed high priorities on the visitor experience, commitment to aboriginal and local employment, and economic development. The proposals for a camp operation were reviewed on the 22nd of June, 2009. The process was audited by an independent third party auditing firm to ensure that all proposals were consistently reviewed. On the 26th of June, Frontiers North's Tundra Buggy Adventure was awarded the licence to establish and operate a polar bear viewing camp at Cape Churchill for the 2010 through 2014 operating seasons. "Providing visitor opportunities for polar bear viewing at Cape Churchill from tundra vehicle and camp was one of the key items identified in Wapusk's 2007 Management Plan," said Park Superintendent Cam Elliott. "With the awarding of this licence and the development of a stronger partnership with Frontiers North, we've realized that goal and set in place the first building blocks for the public presentation of Wapusk National Park of Canada." Frontiers North's proposal built on the strengths of their experience and partnerships, with commitments to innovative programming and state-of-the-art green technologies. "For a few years, in cooperation with Parks Canada, Frontiers North has been working hard to meet and exceed the requirements for businesses operating in Canada's National Parks," said John Gunter, General Manager of Frontiers North. "We're extremely proud of our progress to date and appreciate the opportunity to continue to host guests at Cape Churchill for years to come."
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Tourism Industry Association Awards Winners Announced
Congratulations to Folklorama and Wat'Chee Lodge named as winners at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada's (TIAC) National Tourism Awards during the awards gala yesterday in Saint John, New Brunswick. Folklorama won in the Event of the Year category and was also a finalist in the Business of the Year (single unit) category. Wat'Chee Lodge won in the category of Business of the Year (single unit). The other Manitoba finalist was Clear Lake Golf Course, which was nominated in the Sustainable Tourism category. The TIAC National Tourism Awards were developed in 2003 and are presented by The Globe and Mail. The awards were developed to recognize and foster Canadian tourism excellence and were presented during Canada's Tourism Leadership Summit.
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Congratulations!
Congratulations to Frontiers North Adventures, the premiere provider of Authentic Arctic Experiences in Canada's north, has been awarded the 2009 Skal International Ecotourism Award in the Tour Operator and Travel Agent category. The award was presented to Frontiers North Adventures on November 2nd at the Opening Ceremony of the 70th Skal World Congress held in Budapest, Hungary. Skal International is the largest organization of travel and tourism professionals in the world, with locations in 90 countries and over 20,000 members. As the winner of this year's award, Frontiers North Adventures demonstrated excellence in contributing to the conservation of nature and cultural heritage conservation, community involvement and benefits, educational features, business viability and innovation with their adventures in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
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Since its foundation in 1969, The International Centre has helped thousands of newcomers to Manitoba year after year. As an immigrant service agency dedicated to providing a comprehensive range of services and programs that support and facilitate the integration of newcomers to Manitoba. This year The International Centre of Winnipeg has re-branded its name and logo, expanded its programs and services as well its hours of operation to better serve its clients. Our new name is Immigrant Centre Manitoba.
As Manitoba’s leader in delivering immigrant settlement services, we provide; document application, interpretation and translation, employment support and educational and community services.
Our Employment Support Team helps clients with resume and interview preparation, job searches, workplace culture, and other issues related to finding and maintaining employment. We also work with employers to find employees to match their needs. As a team, we work to find qualified, skilled, responsible, flexible, and eager to work employees to match the needs of the employers we work with. We pride ourselves in our ability to be responsive to employer requests. All our services are cost exempt due to the support from our funders.
We also offer the Workplace Entry Program (WEP), which is a six-week training program for newcomers with Canadian Benchmark Levels of 3 or 4, who are between the ages of 18-30. In this paid training: newcomers learn about how people work in Canada, how to look for a job, interview skills, how to work safely, how to keep a job, and how to solve problems at work. Afterwards, they are referred to an Employment Facilitator for resumes and one-on-one employment counseling.
Centrally located at 100 Adelaide Street (corner of Bannatyne), Immigrant Centre Manitoba is easily accessible by public transportation and within walking distance of other service providers.
The International Centre operates under the direction of a volunteer Board of Directors and is a non-profit organization with a registered charitable status.
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Travel Trends and Training – How Big Picture Trends can Effect Manitoba Businesses
Judy Randall, along with Dr. Larry Gustke, are authors the annual Top Ten Trends In Travel and Tourism, which is used internationally by travel and tourism marketing organizations. According to Randall’s Top Ten Travel Trends for 2009-2010, one of the upcoming trends is: “More demand by all travel segments for “Orientation and facilitation” - - evolving to more of a ‘concierge service on demand’.”
“Today’s traveler is impatient with the process of ‘finding the good stuff’. From preferred restaurants, to lodging, to things to see and do, travelers report frustration with having to dig through tons of brochures, websites, etc. to find travel choices. They want someone or something that gives them instant and easy information.”
In the city of Paris, France, they have Adrian Moore, who is, according to British Travel magazine, Monacle, the best concierge in the world. Directing travelers to the best places to dine, and ‘in the know’ about special events, Adrian, who works at the Four Seasons in Paris, humbly describes his job, “I’m a people person, so helping out comes easily. Sometimes it’s just a matter of helping [clients] make up their own minds.”
Talk of concierge services at your hotel might seem like a stretch, but think of all of the interactions that your guests have with your staff. When your customers are asking your staff for local information on what there is to see and do in your community, what is their answer? Do they have the hours of operation for local services that a traveler may need, on hand? Are they up on local events and the hidden gems that we so often take for granted?
This may be your staff’s opportunity to WOW your guests. By knowing the features, advantages and benefits of your communities and the businesses located there, Customer Service can go beyond the expected to offer a travel experience that is easy, has a sense of fun and adventure and promotes local flavour. This, according to TIA’s Ideal American Vacation Report released in 2007, is the ideal offering to travelers.
MANITOBA BEST Service Excellence is a one day workshop that instructs staff on how to provide professional hospitality, that involves welcoming each visitor, and attending to their unique needs. To learn more about this workshop, visit www.mtec.mb.ca
For more information on Randall’s Top Ten Travel trends, please click here.
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11/2/2009
Employee engagement critical when economy a challenge
Meaningful work boosts performance, even in a recession
By Paul Fairlie
Why should we care if employees are happy? We’re in a recession. Shouldn’t they be thankful to have jobs?” That’s the attitude some employers may have in the current economic climate.
But while fear can certainly be a motivator, disengaged employees may still underperform during a recession. Add job insecurity to the mix and some employees may be running for the exits, according to a study of 800 working Canadians conducted by Paul Fairlie Consulting.
Meaningful work is effective work
Employees may try to be more effective in a bid to keep their jobs, but a lack of certain job characteristics may keep them from doing so.
In the study, employees saw themselves as being most effective when they had variety, control, clear feedback, recognition and a significant impact on other people and things. These five must-haves of meaningful work were more strongly linked to effectiveness than perceptions of supervisors, co-workers and pay levels. Even good work processes and communications, which are engineered to increase effectiveness, did not make employees feel as effective as having meaningful work.
Having a job with significant impact was critical. When this was high, employees reported 1.6 times more effectiveness than when it was moderate, and almost three times more than when it was low.
Who felt the most effective? Employees in jobs with high significance and clear feedback — almost four times more effective.
In short, employees may stick around and work hard in a down economy. But despite their best efforts, a lack of meaningful work can still hamper their performance.
Job insecurity… how depressing
Employers may think employees are scared into performing well when their jobs are at stake. In fact, their performance may suffer due to mood problems.
When job security was at its lowest, the average employee reported 11 days of depression and 15 days of anxiety per month. This is compared to only three days for both problems when job security was highest.
Depressed employees are unproductive. They have trouble with concentration, memory, multi-tasking, decision-making and learning. They also lose interest in their work.
Depressed workers also lack positive affect, a trait that helps them to generate creative, flexible and integrative ideas. Without this, excellence and innovation are impossible. Ironically, many companies are focusing on innovation in order to hit the ground running post-recession. Not surprisingly, positive affect is also linked to performance — the “happy, productive worker” effect.
Job security and retention
This may come as a surprise but less secure employees may be more likely to quit.
Among employees in the lowest quartile for job security, only 26 per cent agreed they truly belonged in their organization — compared to 90 per cent in the highest quartile. Similarly, only 62 per cent in the lowest quartile agreed they did not currently intend to quit their job while a whopping 94 per cent agreed in the highest quartile.
How do employers make sense of this? Perhaps employees who expect the axe to fall already see themselves as outsiders. They may look for new jobs as a pre-emptive strike and beat their employers to the punch. Employers might not expect employees to quit in a weak job market but job availability has little impact on quitting. It may be once employees start looking for jobs to replace the ones they expect to lose, they discover opportunities that were previously unknown to them, including recession-proof jobs.
Not everyone is going to leave because of job security but it’s important to consider who might. Highly valued employees with strong, transferrable skills get anxious and insecure, too. When they look for new work, they’re more likely to find it. It doesn’t matter whether an organization is actually planning to downsize. It is employee expectations, not reality, that drive these effects.
Tips for employers
Re-tool jobs and workplaces to be more meaningful: Don’t assume meaningfulness is inherent only in certain jobs. Most jobs can be imbued with more variety, control, feedback, recognition and significant impact. Ensure these things are widespread prior to downturns. During downturns (and cutbacks), remember that feedback and recognition are free.
Communicate: Re-communicate the meaningfulness of people’s jobs and the organization in general. It may already be there, but not obvious. This is helpful in downturns when job redesign is unfeasible.
Conduct employee surveys in unstable times: The answers could reveal a lot about employee perceptions when engagement and focus are most needed (and most compromised).
Advertise EAPs: Encourage employees to use employee assistance programs (EAPs), if available. EAPs can help employees cope with mood problems that affect performance.
Manage employee feelings of job insecurity: If jobs are secure, give compelling proof. If you’re not sure, communicate a plan for weathering the storm and perhaps even thriving. Engage employees in carrying out the plan. Structure this involvement to be high in the five must-haves of meaningful work. Proactivity and direction are more engaging in unstable times than complacency and lack of information.
Paul Fairlie is president and CEO of Paul Fairlie Consulting, a Toronto-based research and consulting firm that helps employers create meaningful and healthy workplaces. He can be reached at pfairlie@paulfairlieconsulting.com.
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SAFE Hospitality is pleased to offer safety training for the tourism industry. This month our feature course is WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Material Information System).
An employer has an obligation to take an inventory of all chemicals used in the workplace and ensure current MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) are available. They must also train their employees on the proper handling of these products. Workers have the responsibility to protect themselves and others working around them. This also includes biological hazards such as mold and blood borne pathogens. With this course, you will receive training in a dynamic environment and a certificate in basic WHMIS.
Course Date: November 25, 2009
Time: 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Cost: Complimentary (Regularly $19.99)
Location: The MTEC Learning Centre: Suite 100-1534 Gamble Place, Winnipeg
Facilitator: Shelley Kaptein
Shelley brings over 12 years of working in the field as a Safety Professional. She is a graduate of the U of M Certificate Program for Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Studies. Some of her credits include:
- Gold Seal Certified Construction Safety Officer
- One of the few approved external COR Auditors for both construction sectors: building and heavy construction.
- CSO (Construction Safety Officer) for both of these sectors, and an EM (Environmental Monitor) and a Certified Industrial Audiometric Technician
- Instructor for The Red River College Safety Management Training Program
- Certified Industrial Audiometric Technician Hearing Testing and Conservation Programs
- Authorized Manitoba Department of Labour, Workplace Safety and Health Division Training Program Provider.
- Requested educator for Manitoba Construction Safety Conference for the past 8 years.
- Previous training consultant for the Manitoba Safety Council.
- Volunteer speaker for "Workers of Tomorrow"
Shelley sits on the executive board of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, is a member in good standing with Canadian Society of Safety Engineering and The American International Hygiene Association. She has been the Chairperson for the Manitoba Building Contractor Safety Advisory Council and sat on the executive board for the Accident Prevention Association of Manitoba.
To register, please contact Ashley Hayward at ashley@safehospitality.com or by phone 694-7233. For additional courses, please click here.
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